Hello world!

WordPress.com begins each blog with a post called Hello world! This is the first program many people learn in almost every programing language. It allows people to compare how different languages preform the same task. I would like to use this blog to explore the way different ways that information developers, course developers, technical writers, and others perform a given set of tasks using different tool sets.

The first of two topics I will focus on in the coming month is how to rethink course development. Many of us learned to rely on our instructors to stress what the students need to know and to make the information interesting. Moving to self paced learning means relearning how to present information. Slides of bullet points with no in depth analysis doesn’t cut it any longer, if it ever did.

The second topic that has invaded my life is how to create a course for a product that is being developed using Agile software development. No longer do I have functional specifications, feature lists, or detailed front end analysis. I still have to identify the number of development hours so we can bill the development group. I still have to have a course description 90 days before the course is due so people can order it. I still have to create a course matrix before development begins. It is obvious that some of my processes and deliverables will have to change in the Agile world. The question is Has anyone created best practices for course development in an Agile environement? If so, where do I find them? If not, can we create them?